Prayer, Praise Ring Out In Church Celebrations

Dancing and singing, crying and embracing, some of Chicago's most spirited revelers welcomed the new year Friday in churches, where they celebrated the epochal moment with an eye on eternity.

More than 5,000 people literally leapt for joy on the Far South Side, as Salem Baptist Church ushered in 2000 with three hours of exuberant praise and prayer.

"A lot of people were predicting so many bad things to happen," said Marie Rochelle, a member of Salem Baptist. "But I believe 2000 is going to be a year when we see a lot of new things happening, God's new things, in Chicago especially."

Meanwhile, in the hush of Holy Name Cathedral, several hundred people gathered for a solemn midnight mass.

Earlier in the evening, Cardinal Francis George had joined Rev. John Buchanan at Chicago's Fourth Presbyterian Church for an ecumenical prayer service that drew more than 500 worshipers.

At St. James Catholic Church in Sauk Village, New Year's observances began Friday afternoon and were not scheduled to end until worshipers finished breakfast Saturday morning in the parish hall.

"This has turned out to be a delightful event for us," said Rev. Tom Conde. "I think folks wanted to be closer to home for this New Year's because of all of the hype and worry over the Y2K stuff. What better place to be than in church if the whole thing blows up?"

With their own calendars, many of Chicago's Jews celebrated their weekly Sabbath without reference to the year 2000, while Muslims continued to observe their holy month of Ramadan.

At the Midwest Buddhist Temple in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood, however, about 40 worshipers dined on buckwheat noodles in a traditional farewell to the year gone by, and each welcomed the new by striking a large gong twice.

Many Chicagoans who took part in religious services Friday were regulars, but others found their way to church more spontaneously.

Andrew Cook and Christine Actipes of Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood were on their way home to a quiet New Year's with their dog when they saw a signboard on Michigan Avenue announcing the ecumenical service at Fourth Presbyterian Church.

Though they are neither Presbyterian nor Catholic, Actipes said that joining two of Chicago's best known clergymen and several hundred other worshipers in the Gothic-revival glory of the church seemed the right way of marking the moment that was both different and enriching.

Honora Ostermann of Hoffman Estates, meanwhile, had been planning to come to the service for weeks, and she had managed to persuade more than two dozen relatives from as far away as Washington, D.C. and Portland, Ore. to join her.

"This is the way we wanted to start the new year--thanking the Lord for all his blessings," Ostermann said.

At Christ Universal Temple, where Salem Baptist has held its New Year's Eve services since it outgrew Salem's building, Rev. James Meeks said that people come to acknowledge their reliance on God.

"We believe that we made it through the year because God has taken us by the hand," Meeks said.